Hurricane Dean devastated Costa Maya/Majahual so we obviously won't be making our port stop there. Fortunately, it seems no lives were lost (update - I have read of 12 people killed in Mexico by Dean), but many have been disrupted. Pray for the people of the region and that they are able to recover their homes and livelihoods quickly.

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http://playazone.wordpress.com/tag/weather/

http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/35443-hurricane-assistance-needed-majahual-asap-playa-folks-3.html

http://www.lunabluehotel.com/mahahual_hurricane_dean/index.html

http://www.margaritadelsol.com/toppage2.htm

http://www.cruzrojarivieramaya.org/

http://www.portillas.com/

http://www.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=661329

http://www.myspace.com/mahahualsarah

Some satellite pics of Dean rolling in: http://www.zydecocruiser.com/fantasy_07/s1.htm

How you can help: http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/880486-post45.html

{and see where your donations go starting here: http://www.playa.info/playa-del-carmen-forum/35443-hurricane-assistance-needed-majahual-asap-playa-folks-3.html

 

http://www.helpafterdean.com/

 

 

{ no, I didn't take any of the pics other than liberating them from various Internet sources }

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before and After

 

 

Some more pics including Cat's Meow, and Hotel Cueva del Lobo/Blue Ocean Safari: http://www.nomaddivers.com/mahahual_before_and_after_hurricane_dean.htm

And even more pics: http://www.locogringo.com:80/hurricane/dean/mahahual26aug07.html

 

 

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An email from the owner of Chac-Chi:

Hi,

As you know hurricane Dean entered on Mahahual the 21th of August. My self and my family would like to thank you for all your prayers and good thoughts for our family, workers and Chac-Chi. We appreciate the time you took to write us to ask about our status. When Dean arrived, Chac-Chi was empty, we all left several days in advance to a safer place and we are all fine.

Dean strike Mahahual with a huge force and the results were not good for us and for most of the inhabitants of Mahahual. Most of the touristic infrastructure was severely damaged, buildings that were not of concrete were almost completely destroyed.

Unfortunately Chac-Chi was strongly damaged, our main structure, a big palapa which holds the restaurant, had lost it's roof and several of or cabaņas were also damaged. You can see a picture by Reuters of our place at the following link.
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070822/i...r582010275.jpg

Another bad news was the lost of almost half the Costa Maya pier and they estimate that it will be repair in about 6 to 8 months (http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=2162).

We are still evaluating the extensive damage that our place received, and we estimate a long recovery time. We hope to be open around the same time that the cruise ship pier is repaired and will be open as long as you or people as your self are willing to come to our place to have a good time. All changes are for good and life give us new opportunities to improve, we will try to make a better place were you can enjoy and relax on your vacations.

Once again I would like to thank you for all your support this years and we hope to see you again when we are up and running again.

Joaquin R.

 

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First 2-3 seconds you can see what is left of the pier.

http://www.dropshots.com/tomjensen#date/2007-08-23/00:24:34